This invention relates to a system which can be used in an automatic vending machine or other devices related thereto, and more particularly, to such system capable of renewing amount record in a prepaid card.
In a prepaid card, namely, a prepaid purchase card, money amount information is recorded by means of magnetic or other suitable recording methods.
There are generally two types of prepaid cards in reruns of their usages. With one type of the cards, an amount spent is merely subtracted from the amount recorded in the card until its balance becomes zero at which time the card is prohibited from further use. With the other type, additional or cumulative renewal of a recorded amount is enabled so that the card can be used permanently or recycled. Further, with the other type, a cash amount can be entered into the card by the use of a dedicated cash amount recording machine, or by the use of an automatic vending machine for which both money and a card can be used.
The entering of a cash amount into a card by the use of an automatic vending machine for which both money and a card can be used is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 52-28396, 55-52191 or 59-117692, or Japanese Patent Publication No. 54-20367. Each of the above-listed publications shows the feature that amounts of inserted card and money are added together, a product sale is permitted only within the range of the sum of the card and money amounts, and the amount of change is written into the inserted card instead of being returned in cash.
Also, Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 62-24393 shows the feature that the amount of change is written into a card instead of being returned in cash when a sale has been made, whereas the sum of the amounts of inserted card and money is written into the card in response to the actuation of a card returning button when no sale has been made.
However, when the amount recorded in a prepaid card is to be additionally renewed in the prior art prepaid card systems, it is not at all possible to receive the change in cash even if so desired, for the reason that the total amount of the change is, as mentioned, automatically written into the card when a sale has been made by the combined payment of a card and cash. This undesirably causes inconveniences to the purchaser or user when he wants the change to be given back in cash.
Also, according to the prior art prepaid card systems, the entire amount of the change is additionally written, and it is impossible to additionally write only a desired amount into the card.
Furthermore, automatic vending machines which sell various prepaid card, such as a telephone card vending machine are also known. However, each of the known machines of this type only issues a new prepaid card in response to the required payment and it can not additionally renew the amount recorded in an already issued prepaid card.